Sheep Thrills
Mutton makes Owensboro the "Barbecue Capital of the World"

CERTAIN Southern cities – Memphis, for instance – might get up in arms upon hearing that Owensboro, Kentucky claims to be "the Barbecue Capital of the World." But start talking mutton and that blues-croonin’ Mississippi River city had better clam up or get ready to fight some 80,000 dyed-in-the-wool barbecue afficionados who make an annual pilgrimage the second weekend in May to Owensboro’s International Bar-B-Q Festival.

We’re not talking a backyard barbecue here, though there is a contest for two- to six-man home grilling teams. This is "fill your nostrils and make you salivate," hickory smoked, Western Kentucky outdoor pit barbecue, cooked by anywhere from seven to 12 50-member teams, mostly sponsored by area Catholic churches, who are all vying for the festival’s coveted best cooking team title.

Why mutton? Dating back to at least the early 1880s, Owensboro’s barbecued mutton tradition began with the large numbers of sheep brought into Daviess County by Dutch pioneer settlers. Agricultural records of the time report nearly twice as many sheep as cattle. Local lore has it that due to that abundance, mutton was the meat that Roman Catholic parishioners donated to church picnics, well-attended social get-togethers that continue today.

On the practical side, rumor has it that barbecuing is the only cooking method that can make mutton, which is actually made from aged sheep, tender and palatable. Way back in 1890, Owensboro opened its first commercial barbecue establishment and barbecued mutton still prevails, both in its eateries and at its annual celebration.

Of course, barbecued chicken, pork and ribs are available as well, but it’s mutton that characterizes Owensboro’s barbecue, says Ken Bosley, co-owner of the Moonlite Bar-B-Q Inn, one of the city’s four major barbecue restaurants.

Opened in 1949 as a 12-seat carry-out roadside barbecue-and-beer joint, the Moonlite is now a 325-seat, $5 million-plus business that cranks out some 2,500 pounds of mutton, pork, beef, ribs and chicken a day in two-story stainless steel ovens over enclosed hickory pits tended by an around-the-clock cooking crew. Bosley’s parents bought the place in 1963, and today, three generations still run the restaurant and its huge carry-out, wholesale, mail order, restaurant equipment and catering divisions (the latter of which serves Owensboro’s famous fare to Toyota Motor Manufacturing Company’s annual picnic for 15,000).

Politicians Al Gore and Dan Quayle ate Moonlite barbecue while on the campaign trail, as did U.S. armed forces during Operation Desert Storm.

What makes Owensboro barbecue different, says Bosley, is the time factor, the basting sauce or dip, and hickory smoking.

"We don’t think it takes a whole lot of dip to make good barbecue. We use a vinegar, salt, pepper and Worcestershire-type base rather than tomato or mustard-based sauces like they use in South Carolina and a few other states, " he explains. "And we cook it very slow over hickory smoke.

"Now, you can take charcoal and cook ribs or chicken and put a good sauce on it. Some people think that’s barbecue, but it’s not barbecue to us."

Some 23 years ago, Bosley and the executive director of the city’s Chamber of Commerce combined forces in search of a tourist attraction. The idea they came up with was a festival to honor their time-honored local chow and pinned that world-class moniker on it.

World-class? Oh my, yes. This community does take its barbecue seriously. Each festival cooking team is required to prepare a minimum of 800 chickens, 600 pounds of mutton and at least 150 gallons of burgoo for the enormous crowd. Last year, competition victuals sold out a mere 45 minutes after the traditional 4 p.m. shotgun start.

But rest assured that not one attendee left the Festival hungry. Only the competition-prepared cuisine was hoovered down that quickly. During the two-day fete – slated for May 12 and 13 this year – local barbecue establishments set up booths with restaurant fare that’s available from the time festivities commence around six on Friday evening.

A mind-boggling array of musical entertainment kicks off Friday’s agenda, with live stage shows from Cajun and country to Native American and reggae.

That’s another reason for huge numbers of attendees. Not only is the Bar-B-Q Festival free, it’s entirely staffed by volunteers and every penny goes to a good cause. Competition between the teams is fierce but friendly, for each is sweating over a steamy pit for the charity of its choice. Because the teams purchase all meat and supplies themselves, the 56-member volunteer festival board buys the competition barbecue from them to serve to the public. To further ease the teams’ financial burden, the board provides an additional $1,000 to each team, tagged for its chosen charity.

Festival Saturday dawns rife with excitement and often with rain. As the pits are outdoors and uncovered, the show goes on, no matter what. Surprisingly, each cooking team’s 150 gallons of burgoo is guaranteed never to taste the same. Initially created by folks looking for a way to serve whatever hunters brought back from the woods, burgoo was offered at church picnics and political gatherings, often with squirrel as a major ingredient.

Today, mutton gives burgoo its decidedly gamey flavor. Rain in the pit will affect the taste, and dry years beget a truer one. Yet, rain or shine, people come and the barbecue still sells out.

Come 4 o’clock sharp on Saturday, the public stampede is on and the festival’s raison d’etre becomes satisfyingly clear.

Visitors come to the festival literally from all over the world. In May of 2000, representatives from Owensboro’s sister city – Olomouc in the Czech Republic – are slated to attend, including its mayor and police chief, who’ll learn about crowd handling from the local authorities.

Besides eating, Festival revelers will be busy watching or participating in pageants and contests topping the bill of day-long fun, including an arts and crafts show, keg toss, pie- or mutton-eating contests, a hole-in-one contest, 5K run, bike rides and the burgoo relay. In this hilarious annual rivalry, which benefits Special Olympics, local restaurant teams must carry a tray of burgoo through an obstacle course that changes each year.

As a rule, only two cooking teams are not church-sponsored, United Steelworkers and Crooked Creek. The latter has been a part of the festival since year one, when some friends who’d been chefs at their own backyard picnics for years decided they could run a pit as well as any church team. Twenty-three years later, they’re still at it.

"And every year they swear they’re not going to do it again, but they always come back," laughs Wright, whose husband cooks for Crooked Creek and 12-year-old son helps out. Now their children and children’s children are working. One team member has three daughters who grew up on the team, and now their husbands have joined them. Even their kids are out there, serving burgoo, cleaning up, running errands."

It’s this sense of tradition that makes the International Bar-B-Q Festival a real slice of Americana. That and the volunteer spirit that gives unselfishly of its time, all for charity.

"It’s a ton of work, but for whatever crazy reason, they do it," Wright says. "Every single person is here for the love of it."

And of that great barbecue. "There’s nothing," she adds, "like barbecue off the pit."

Katherine Tandy Brown is a staff writer for The Lane Report

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